1. Field of the Invention
The prevent invention relates to an activity state general viewing system for keeping track, by using a computer, of the circumstances and states of activities where a plurality of persons are working in conjunction, and a computer-readable recording medium on which is recorded such an activity state general viewing program, and more particularly an activity state general viewing system whereby a sequence of activity states are managed at a plurality of locations, and a computer-readable recording medium on which is recorded such an activity state general viewing program.
2. Description of the Related Art
Systems according to the prior art for keeping track of the progress of meetings or discussions are known to persons skilled in the art. For instance in the Japanese Published Unexamined Patent Application No. Hei 4-323689, there is disclosed a xe2x80x9cconference progress supporting system,xe2x80x9d which can officially support the chairperson""s grip on the state of the meeting he or she chairs by displaying the duration of speech by each speaker.
There is also known an electronic conference supporting system enabling participants in the supported conference to easily keep track of the progress of the meeting. For instance in the Japanese Published Unexamined Patent Application No. Hei 5-236131, there is disclosed an xe2x80x9celectronic conference supporting system,xe2x80x9d which enables the participants to follow the progress of the meeting by illustrating the sequence of statements and the relationships among the statements. In the Japanese Published Unexamined Patent Application No. Hei 6-266632 is disclosed an xe2x80x9cinformation processing method and apparatus for electronic conference systems,xe2x80x9d which shows in a window on the display screen the contents of a meeting by displaying the period of speech by each participant in the meeting together with contents of the speech. This facilitates confirmation and reuse of the particulars of the meeting.
There are also known systems for displaying relationships among messages in discussions and meetings by electronic mail. For instance in the Japanese Published Unexamined Patent Application No. Hei 7-210476, there is disclosed an xe2x80x9celectronic mail system,xe2x80x9d which facilitates referencing by associating messages, exchanged by electronic mail, with linking information.
However, these products of the prior art have the following problems.
The inventions disclosed in the Japanese Published Unexamined Patent Applications Nos. Hei 4-323689, Hei 5-236131 and Hei 6-266632, though permitting acquisition and management of information on any visible or audible actions, such as speaking in a meeting, cannot enable the chairperson to recognize such unexpressed actions as reading reference materials and thinking or taking many memos, though not speaking up, during the meeting. There is a further problem that, even though the circumstances during a given meeting can be expressed, events which occurred since the last meeting by the current one or the circumstances of a topic discussed through more than one meeting cannot be kept track of.
The electronic mail system described in the Japanese Published Unexamined Patent Application No. Hei 7-210476 involves the problem that no development following an outgoing mail, such as a transfer or any discussion arising in the absence of the sender, can be known unless a reply is received by the sender of that mail. There is another problem that the writer of a message knows no context to refer to.
Since no prior art allowed keeping track of any user""s personal activities, it was impossible to take a comprehensive look at the whole project. Even if, for instance, a proposal made regarding a given project in fact was a diversion of a proposal discussed in connection with another project, the prior art can in no way reveal the fact if the earlier proposal had been part of the personal work of the proponent.
An object of the present invention, attempted in view of these problems, is to provide an activity state general viewing system for making it possible to keep track of the activity states of a plurality of users involved in a project, including pertinent personal activities by the users.
Another object of the invention is to provide an activity state general viewing method for making it possible to keep track of the activity states of a plurality of users involved in a project, including pertinent personal activities by the users.
Still another object of the invention is to provide a computer-readable recording medium on which is recorded an activity state general viewing program capable of causing a computer to perform operations to keep track of the activity states of a plurality of users involved in a project, including pertinent personal activities by the users.
In order to solve the aforementioned problems, according to the present invention, there is provided an activity state general viewing system for keeping track of the circumstances and states of activities where a plurality of persons are working in conjunction, comprising a plurality of work data management units for storing work data representing the contents of activities; an information processing unit for processing work data in the work data management units in compliance with request from users; a plurality of activity information management units, one provided for each of said work data management units, for managing, as activity information, the particulars of operations performed on work data stored in the corresponding one of said work data management units; and an activity information tracing unit for extracting, on the basis of activity information separately managed by the plurality of said activity information management units, particulars of a sequence of operations performed on a specific activity.
Where such an activity state general viewing system is used, as a user enters an operation request for work data, an information processing unit processes work data within the work data management units to be operated upon. Then, activity information, indicating the particulars of operations, is managed by the activity information management unit. And the activity information tracing unit, on the basis of activity information separately managed by the plurality of said activity information management units, extracts the particulars of a sequence of operations performed on a specific activity.
Also in order to solve the aforementioned problems, there is provided an activity state general viewing method for keeping track of the circumstances and states of activities where a plurality of persons are working in conjunction, whereby particulars of operation performed on work data stored in a plurality of work data management units are managed as activity information for each of said work data management units, and the particulars of a sequence of operations performed on a specific activity are extracted on the basis of activity information managed for each of said work data management units.
By such an activity state general viewing method, as work data stored in a plurality of work data management unit are processed, the particulars of operation are managed for each work data management unit, and the particulars of a sequence of operations performed on a specific activity are extracted on the basis of activity information managed for each of said work data management units.
Further in order to solve the aforementioned problems, there is provided a computer-readable recording medium on which is recorded an activity state general viewing program for keeping track of the circumstances and states of activities where a plurality of persons are working in conjunction, said program causing a computer to function as a plurality of work data management units for storing work data representing the contents of activities; an information processing unit for processing work data in the work data management units in compliance with request form users; a plurality of activity information management units, one provided for each of said work data management units, for managing as activity information the particulars of operations performed on work data stored in the corresponding one of said work data management units; and an activity information tracing unit for extracting, on the basis of activity information separately managed by the plurality of said activity information management units, particulars of a sequence of operations performed on a specific activity.
If a computer is caused to execute such an activity state general viewing program recorded on a recording medium, functions required by the activity state general viewing system pertaining to the invention can be implemented on the computer.